Hand drawn or painted FDC (first day covers) have been done since the 1940s. Over the past few years I have begun combining my collection of comic character hand drawn sketches with FDCs. This blog is being maintained for the purpose of sharing my collection...

Friday, January 25, 2013

Charles Dowd is a Baltimore based artist and illustrator specializing in the darker surreal side of fantasy art. He is the creator of Lilith Dark, an all-ages graphic novel about a young girl with a wild imagination who discovers that evil beasties live in a tree in her backyard...

Hello Beastie. I do not fear you for I am Lilith Dark!

Lilith Dark is a web-based comic that has found it's way to print format. Lilith made it's debut September 2010. I had not read the web-comic, but after reading the book I have to see what happens next!

I enjoy the use of a child's imagination, like the stuffed Dinosaurus turning into a real dinosaur (a la Calvin and Hobbes, but that's ok becasue Calvin and Hobbes are great) that's what allows the story line to take what ever turn it wants. Watch out for the Beasties...

Friday, January 18, 2013

Robert McCall (1919-2010) has done more than any other artist to enable the general public to envision the accomplishments of the American space program. His first illustrations were of Alan Shepard aboard his Mercury space capsule, up to the launch of the Space Shuttle. His works are viewed by millions very year as part of the National Air and Space Museum displays in Washington, DC...

NASA invited many artists to capture history in the making and McCall was on site at the beginning of the US space program. Although photography was extensively utilized, NASA administrator James Webb first invited artist James Dean, in 1962 to create art inspired by the fledgling space program. The following year the first group of artists, which would reach about 350 artists, started recording the history of maned space flight. The list of artists includes Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz, Paul Calle, Robert Rauschenberg. The concept was that different artists would view the same subject in different ways the mind sees, feels and reacts, as stated by Dean... The art collection would grow to contain paintings, sketches, sculptures, poetry, dance and song. The majority of the collection are housed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum...

McCall would also design several stamps for the USPS. His first stamp design for the USPS was the 1971 Decade of Achievement twin stamp issue. Others include the 1973 Pioneer Spacecraft, 1974 Skylab, 1975 Apollo-Soyuz, 1978 Viking Mission to Mars, 1981 Space Shuttle (pane of 8 stamps)...

McCall has also worked on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Star Trek movies and Disney's The Black Hole...

I had written to McCall on several occasions to obtain an autograph on a space fdc, for which he signed and return. I was never lucky enough to have obtained a sketch on cover. When I found the above on E-Bay, I had to bid and feel very lucky to have this as part of my collection...

Issued May 29, 1992 in conjunction with the World Columbian Stamp Expo `92 the block of 4 stamps feature most of the significant moments of the previous 35 years of both the American and Russian space programs. The stamp above features a Russian cosmonaut and the US space shuttle...

Friday, January 11, 2013

Mike Royer career has covered many aspects of comic art. Starting out his career as an assistant to Russ Manning, on comic book titles Magnus, Robet Fighter and Tarzan, as well as inking the Tarzan and Star Wars newspaper strips. Continuing on various comics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Speed Buggy, Space Ghost, Creepy, eerie and Vampirella. Providing layout work for the Spiderman animated series...

Worked for 14 years on staff with the Walt Disney Company creative department designing and directing the Dick Tracy and 3D Rocketeer read-along books. He created the new-look Winnie the Pooh in 1993, and a 43 minute video "How to Draw Pooh" tutorial...

The DC comics Green Arrow is credited as having been drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Mike Royer. Royer provides a different story about the image used on the stamp....

Portion of an interview from the Silver Age Sage, by way of Cartoon Philately and Mike Rhodes (thanks):

Bryan D. Stroud: Did you get credit for the postage stamp that features your Green Arrow?

Mike Royer: No, no. What really gripes me about that…I tried to set the record straight in the Jack Kirby Collector, but I don't think it ever resonated with anybody. Everybody talks about the "Green Arrow stamp inked by Mike Royer." DC sent me a scan of a photo-copy of a western Jack Kirby 1950s character named Bullseye. He was in fringe, leathers, a cowboy hat with a feather, pulling back on a bow and inked by somebody who inked his own personality over Jack's pencils, rather than inking it the way Jack would have inked it. DC asked, "Can you take this pose and make it an early 1970's Jack Kirby/Mike Royer Green Arrow?" Which is exactly what I did. It's his pose, his stance, his dynamics, but I made it Green Arrow with his entirely different costume, all the folds, etc., and everything else the way I believe Jack would have penciled it in the '70's, so I don't think it's fair to just say that it's "Green Arrow inked by Mike Royer." It was printed on a comic book (used on the cover of The Jack Kirby Omnibus, volume one starring Green Arrow); a special one-shot reprint of Kirby's '50's Green Arrow and then a few years later it winds up being on a postage stamp.

In 1954 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby started their own company called Mainline. One of the titles from Mainline was Bullseye, Western Scout. Bullseye is born during an indian attack, escaping with his Grandfather, Deadeye Dick, who along with an Indian scout, Long Drink raise the boy to become a master marksman. The first issue was drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by John Prentice...

Friday, January 4, 2013

JK Woodward has been recently working with IDW Comics on the Star Trek Next Generation - Doctor Who Assimilation2 crossover.

Signed copy of issue #3 which features Doctor's #4 and #11, Capts Picard and Kirk...

IDW started the Assimilation2 crossover in May 2012, written by David Tipton, Scott Tipton and Tony Lee, with art by J.K. Woodward and David Messina, as a 8-issue series...When the Federation's most terrifying enemy strikes an unholy alliance with the Doctor's most hated antagonists, the result is devastation...a partnership between the Cybermen and the Borg...

The issue pictured featured the Doctor remembering back to a time when he (as Doctor #4) visited Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise for the first time...

Issue #3 Woodward cover variant.

First Day Cover art provided by Woodward is Matt Smith - Doctor #11.

The Royal Mail - will be issuing a series of Doctor Who stamps in 2013....

The 50th anniversary of this strange traveler stepping out of a police box is being honored by the Royal Mail with each of the Doctors being featured on his own stamp issue...

About Me

I have been a collector as far back as I can remember. Stamps, covers, autographs, baseball cards, comic books, coins, political buttons, sports memorabilia, space stamps and covers, and the list goes on.
This blog was set up to be able to share a small part of my collection with anyone who shares the interest.